GDF Suez has been awarded a contract to develop the country’sfirst regasification terminal and will charter an FSRU from the Japaneseshipowner, the French energy firm said today.
TradeWinds originally broke the news of both contracts in May and June this year (see related stories).
GDF Suez has secured a 15-year BOOT (Build, Own, Operate andTransfer) contract starting in 2015 with local utility Gas Sayogo for the GNLdel Plata project.
The 145,130-cbm regasification vessel GDF Suez Neptune(built 2009) will initially be deployed at the terminal before making way for aMOL-owned newbuild FSRU.
Though the shipowner has yet to confirm the deal, TradeWindsreported in June that MOL had been tipped to win the race to provide the FSRUand had secured a berth for a newbuilding at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineeringin Korea.
Norway’s Hoegh LNG was also in the running to provide a unitfor the project to be located in Punta Sayogo near Montevideo.
The terminal will be capable of receiving Q-Flex LNGcarriers, the world’s second largest at 218,000-cbm, and have a send outcapacity of 10 million cubic metres per day (cbm/d) of natural gas.
This will be GDF Suez’s second floating regas terminal inSouth America after the GNL Mejillones project in northern Chile which wascommissioned in 2010.
